08-26-2022, 06:50 PM
My view as a privileged individual who has a relative pay for his schooling is this: The whole system of college loans has been a scam for a long time. Kids that age should in no way be making decisions with that amount of money and potential lifelong consequences without some serious financial education. They should be forced to listen to testimony from older borrowers who had their lives significantly impacted by borrowing upwards of 50k when they were in their late teens/early 20's. They should understand that graduating does not equal automatic employment with a salary large enough to live a decent quality of life while paying the debt.
Lenders have a huge advantage when it comes to kids out of high school. The kids come out expecting to leave home and have a traditional college experience because it's what we were all told we had to do for a few decades. Many of these kids have zero direction when it comes to a profession or employable skill. They're going to go to school and figure it all out while simultaneously being given the largest amount of personal freedom they've ever experienced, with very little real world responsibility-or so it seems. If you don't have a somewhat clear path, you are doomed.
Honestly, you'd be better off becoming a parent as a teen than you would borrowing to go to college without a real plan for what happens after. It's every but as bad of a life decision if you don't have parents with money to pay for it. College is a hell of a lot more fun than work, but if I skipped college and got a job similar to some of the ones that my non-college attending friends did out of high school, I'd have close to a mil in my 401K and be eyeing retirement at 50 in about 5 years. Most kids don't figure that sort of thing out until it's way too late.
I have no problem with forgiveness of the loans. I actually think they should forgive them all and employ a more stringent policy for lending in the future. Borrowers should be people that have legit, definable career goals in mind and no means to obtain it. The people going to college to party and dick around at young adult day camp for 4 years need to be weeded out.
Lenders have a huge advantage when it comes to kids out of high school. The kids come out expecting to leave home and have a traditional college experience because it's what we were all told we had to do for a few decades. Many of these kids have zero direction when it comes to a profession or employable skill. They're going to go to school and figure it all out while simultaneously being given the largest amount of personal freedom they've ever experienced, with very little real world responsibility-or so it seems. If you don't have a somewhat clear path, you are doomed.
Honestly, you'd be better off becoming a parent as a teen than you would borrowing to go to college without a real plan for what happens after. It's every but as bad of a life decision if you don't have parents with money to pay for it. College is a hell of a lot more fun than work, but if I skipped college and got a job similar to some of the ones that my non-college attending friends did out of high school, I'd have close to a mil in my 401K and be eyeing retirement at 50 in about 5 years. Most kids don't figure that sort of thing out until it's way too late.
I have no problem with forgiveness of the loans. I actually think they should forgive them all and employ a more stringent policy for lending in the future. Borrowers should be people that have legit, definable career goals in mind and no means to obtain it. The people going to college to party and dick around at young adult day camp for 4 years need to be weeded out.
